Education and Training Monitor 2023

Comparative report

Summary chart

The Education and Training Monitor's comparative report tracks progress towards achieving the seven EU-level targets agreed under the 2021 EEA strategic framework Resolution. Data are available for six of the main indicators²⁶³ (Figure 38) and this year’s Education and Training Monitor presents new figures for four of them²⁶⁴.

Figure 38. EU-level targets and country performance.

Chart showing the distribution of countries' performance in relation to all the headline EU-level targets simulatenously. The distribution for each EU-level target is represented by a vertical bar ranging between the values for the bottom and top performers, in which country values are represented by dash lines. The lowest and highest dispersion are clearly visible in the early school leaving and the work-based learning in VET targets respectively.

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Six EU countries (France, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, and Spain) have reached the EU-level 2030 target of 96% children aged 3 and above participating in ECEC, while the EU average (92.5% in 2021) seems to have stagnated. The average proportion of early leavers from education and training keeps falling (9.6% in 2022) and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU still remains clearly on track to reaching its 2030 target. In 2022, 60.1% of recent initial VET graduates had participated in work-based learning during their education and training, meeting the 2025 EU-level target of at least 60%. Furthermore, at 42.0% in 2022, the tertiary educational attainment rate among 25-34-year-olds continues to increase, and the EU is well on track to reaching its 2030 target of at least 45%.

The Monitor Toolbox, supporting the Education and Training Monitor, lists the main indicators mentioned here, and complements them with several supporting indicators to shed light on context and possible policy levers. In addition, the Monitor Toolbox features new EU-level indicators requested in the 2021 EEA strategic framework Resolution. Firstly, it shows the new EU-level indicator on equity in education, proposed as part of the 2022 EEA Progress Report and detailed in the 2022 Education and Training Monitor’s comparative report. Secondly, the Monitor Toolbox hosts the new teachers’ dashboard, with several indicators capturing the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

Notes

263.Data underpinning the 2025 EU-level target on adult learning in the preceding 12 months have not yet been made available. Instead, Chapter 6 uses EU Labour Force Survey data referring to a 4-week window instead, alongside data from the 2016 Adult Education Survey.
264.This year’s Education and Training Monitor will be followed by the publication of new data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which underpins the EU-level target on underachievement in reading, mathematics, and science. Data underpinning the 2030 EU-level target on computer and information literacy come from the IEA’s International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS). ICILS 2022 data, covering 22 EU countries, are expected towards the end of 2024.